A tale of tires: Need help/recommendations with a winter setup

[wireb]

Ok we got our first real snow today and and my 2008 GTI had no traction. (Almost to the point I could walk home from work faster). Now I was expecting some traction loss switching down from a Jeep but this just blew my mind.

Some background this was a dealer car I bought this year from a MN dealer. So I assumed it would have all season tires on it right.... Bridgestone Potenza RE050 225/45R17 91W So go look them up on the web and they are listed as Max performance summer (not for snow / freezing use). WTF.......


So now looks like I need a winter setup.
Would like to get a second set of rims and tires so I can just swap back and forth. (no reason to junk a good set of tires just have to use them up during the warm weeks)

Question #1:
What is the best winter (not all season) tire out there? Not looking for high performance just needs to get me from home to work in what ever weird snow storm is tossed at us. 90% of the winter the roads are plowed and clean but the other 10% can be royal shit. Looking for best value tires and willing to pay more for better traction / tread life if significant. (ie don't have money to just flush on looks / name / small improvements)

Question #2:
2008+ should have factory TPMS installed in the tires already correct? (is there any easy way to verify) If so does anyone have a PN handy for them? tire rack will sell a full set for $188 so wanted to check the forum advertisers and dealer to see if there is a better value.

Question #2a:
If I do get a second set of tire sensors how to I program the car to use them? Reading the forums it sounds like you can do the following to force the car to learn the new settings.
1.) let the car sit for over 20 minutes.
2.) pump the tires up to 40psi
3.) drive around for ~10 minutes at 16mph
Can anyone confirm or deny if this works? (just to be clear I will have 2 sets of sensors I want to swap back and forth between)

Question #3:
Looking around tire rack they recommend 205/55-16. This will set my speedometer off by 0.4% so close enough not to worry about. Any reason I would NOT want to run 16" rims? They have a set of steel rims for $220 new is there a better spot to order new steel rims?

Question #3a:
Anyone happen to know if the rims off a pre 99 jeta/golf/??? have the same bolt pattern / fit? I have not called the local junkyards yet but I know there is at least one 98/99 Jetta around. My guess this is going to be the cheapest and fastest way to get a set of rims to mount tires on.

Question #4
Anyone bought tires from tire rack before? Any comments on their service / shipping? Any other tire shops (online or local) you would recommend?

Well other than cleaning out another spot in the garage to store even more tires (got 4 off the Fiero sitting in one corner waiting for me to finish welding the frame and put the suspension back on the car) I think that is the end of this tale for now.

 

[roastpuff]

Ok we got our first real snow today and and my 2008 GTI had no traction. (Almost to the point I could walk home from work faster). Now I was expecting some traction loss switching down from a Jeep but this just blew my mind.

Some background this was a dealer car I bought this year from a MN dealer. So I assumed it would have all season tires on it right.... Bridgestone Potenza RE050 225/45R17 91W So go look them up on the web and they are listed as Max performance summer (not for snow / freezing use). WTF.......


So now looks like I need a winter setup.
Would like to get a second set of rims and tires so I can just swap back and forth. (no reason to junk a good set of tires just have to use them up during the warm weeks)

Question #1:
What is the best winter (not all season) tire out there? Not looking for high performance just needs to get me from home to work in what ever weird snow storm is tossed at us. 90% of the winter the roads are plowed and clean but the other 10% can be royal shit. Looking for best value tires and willing to pay more for better traction / tread life if significant. (ie don't have money to just flush on looks / name / small improvements)

Question #2:
2008+ should have factory TPMS installed in the tires already correct? (is there any easy way to verify) If so does anyone have a PN handy for them? tire rack will sell a full set for $188 so wanted to check the forum advertisers and dealer to see if there is a better value.

Question #2a:
If I do get a second set of tire sensors how to I program the car to use them? Reading the forums it sounds like you can do the following to force the car to learn the new settings.
1.) let the car sit for over 20 minutes.
2.) pump the tires up to 40psi
3.) drive around for ~10 minutes at 16mph
Can anyone confirm or deny if this works? (just to be clear I will have 2 sets of sensors I want to swap back and forth between)

Question #3:
Looking around tire rack they recommend 205/55-16. This will set my speedometer off by 0.4% so close enough not to worry about. Any reason I would NOT want to run 16" rims? They have a set of steel rims for $220 new is there a better spot to order new steel rims?

Question #3a:
Anyone happen to know if the rims off a pre 99 jeta/golf/??? have the same bolt pattern / fit? I have not called the local junkyards yet but I know there is at least one 98/99 Jetta around. My guess this is going to be the cheapest and fastest way to get a set of rims to mount tires on.

Question #4
Anyone bought tires from tire rack before? Any comments on their service / shipping? Any other tire shops (online or local) you would recommend?

Well other than cleaning out another spot in the garage to store even more tires (got 4 off the Fiero sitting in one corner waiting for me to finish welding the frame and put the suspension back on the car) I think that is the end of this tale for now.

Answer #1

Right now the favored winter tires are the Michelin X-Ice Xi2 and the Blizzak WS-60 for ABSOLUTE best performance. The Xi2 has better tread life than the Blizzak, but the Blizzak is grippier on ice and deep snow. Both are fairly expensive winter tires, with the Michelin being the more expensive. Which one would you prioritize - ultimate grip or better treadwear? The Michelins are also fairly grippy, but are not as good as the Blizzaks on pure ice. In most situations both will be good choices. I go with the Blizzaks, but that's my personal preference and may not even be the right one with my kind of climate.

Keep in mind that both tires are studless snow and ice tires, and are rated only to 99mph or so. Definitely not performance tires, and you will notice loss of ultimate traction in dry and wet condition, reduced turn-in response and a generally softer nature to the tire.

There is another dark horse that just came on the winter tire market though - the Continental Extreme Winter Contact. Supposedly as good as both of the above-mentioned tires, it has better dry road handling and behaves more like a performance snow tire than a studless snow and ice tire (while staying in that traction category). It is over $15 cheaper a tire as well, and could prove to be a good value for money. Here are the tests from Tire Rack: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/TireTestServlet?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ExtremeWinterContact&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&wTire=1&partnum=055TR6EWCXL&tirePageLocQty=%26partnum%3D055TR6EWCXL

#2, 2a

Canadian models do not have TPMS, I will let other owners answer this.

#3

There is no reason to downsize and go with a taller/narrower tire if you can't. This will actually give you better traction in winter as it allows the weight of the car to bear down on a smaller contact patch, promoting more grip and enabling the car to cut through slush to find the road. It's like snowshoes vs. ice skates.

Tire Rack generally has good price for steelies, but you might be able to find them cheaper on Craigslist or something. Make sure it's 5x112 bolt pattern, 6.5" or wider and approximately +50 offset.

#3a

Nope, they won't fit. Wrong bolt pattern, as MkIV cars use a 5x100 bolt pattern.

#4
Tire Rack is generally good, and I've had good customer service from them regarding inquiries, shipping and ordering. I live in Canada but I ship them just short of the border and bring them myself due to UPS being prone to overcharging for brokerage... it's just cheaper that way.

Discount Tire is also a good place to order, but less selection and sometimes poorer pricing than Tire Rack though pricematching is available.

Hope that helps!

EDIT: This, of course, does not consider performance snow tires as they do not provide the level of grip that studless ice and snow tires provide. However, the tried and true choice here is the Dunlop WinterSport 3D, for $98 per tire ($8 more than the Continental Winter Extreme Contact). It won't provide the same grip during the 10% completely awful time, but it will be more "fun" to drive on during the other 90%. It will also wear less than the other tires, but that's due to the compound being a bit harder and less susceptible to being worn away, haha. The Continental Extreme Winter Contact sits on a point in between the two extremes, and may indeed be a good compromise between driving fun and winter weather performance.

 

[CaptainPumpkin]

+1 for the Dunlop Winter Sport 3D's I've had them on since early November and they are running on 16" VW OEM steelies. First thing I noticed is holy crap do they grip well! I had a set of Dunlop SP Sport 01 A/S on previously and I know they are not that great but the Dunlop Wintersport are way quieter, gripped better even on dry roads. Wet roads and frosty covered roads that we've had the past couple of days have been great. No snow yet to try out but the tread pattern looks like it'll be fine for the amount of snow we get here.

We don't have TPMS up here so can't comment on that.

I did buy them from TireRack when they had $36 take off rims. I live on the west coast and the Nevada Tirerack didn't have them in stock so they wanted an extra $100 to ship from the east coast but I called in and they had the east coast branch transfer the rims out west for free! Plus they arrived one week earlier than originally quoted. So I'd definitely buy from them again come summer time.